Deanery top trainer award goes to Yeovil Hospital radiologist

There’s no better feeling than being awarded a top accolade by fellow colleagues, and that’s just what Dr Cenydd Thomas has experienced.

Cenydd (or Cen as he’s known) is one of our consultant radiologists at Yeovil Hospital, and since 2018 has had a second role as college tutor for radiology at Yeovil in the Severn Deanery area – covering Cheltenham to Taunton, Bristol to Swindon and everything in between!

He recently won the Severn Deanery award for best teacher, as voted by the resident doctors who he’s mentored during their time at Yeovil Hospital.

There are two separate awards run by the Deanery, one for Bristol-based consultants, and the other for consultants from peripheral hospitals, which include Musgrove Park, Yeovil, and many other medium sized hospitals in the south west.

“To have the work that not only I do, but that of the whole team in radiology at Yeovil Hospital, recognised in this way is fantastic,” says Cen.

“Although I’m the college tutor, this is very much a team effort as we have an excellent group of radiology consultants, sonographers and reporting radiographers, who really help out with training, so it feels like this award is very much for them too. I want to thank my colleagues for their support, as without them we couldn’t really host trainees here.

“I was never expecting to win to be honest, as although all our registrars are able to vote for their trainer in a blind vote, we have a relatively small number coming through our department, so Yeovil is always at a numerical disadvantage!

“It’s quite nice to have that accolade and recognition, and it’s great to hear that so many trainees have remembered their time here so fondly.”

When Cen got the award, he says there were a couple of quotations from the team that really struck home and made him proud, including:

“I take personal responsibility for training registrars and am exceedingly supportive in creating opportunities and teaching sessions.”

“I was engaging in all aspects of radiology, care about the careers of trainees and invest a lot of time in their progression.”

The type of training offered for each trainee varies, depending on which year of their fledgling radiological career they arrive at the trust in.

“To start off with, we get them doing some plain film reporting and ultrasound reporting,” continues Cen. “Eventually with the year one trainees, we’ll work them up to doing a screening list using fluoroscopy, often to help diagnose problems in the gastrointestinal tract, such as barium swallows and barium meals, we also introduce them to some musculoskeletal intervention as well.

“For the more senior year 2 or 3 registrars, they’ll be doing colorectal, gastrointestinal (GI) radiology and also musculoskeletal radiology work, with some more advanced procedures. They’ll also carry out biopsies, and take part in multidisciplinary team meetings.

“Following the award win, it’s really important that we keep working hard as a team, and also look at ways that we can collaborate with the medical education team at Musgrove Park Hospital too.”